Sunday, May 04, 2008

Maryland Sheep and Wool Yarn Gluttony: Don't Judge Me

Peeper-Lou (my Maryland Sheep and Wool knockaround pal) and I had a glorious time today. The amount of yarn purchased was, as you can well imagine, akin to what Ma and Pa Ingalls or other some such homesteaders might have purchased in provisions before leaving the Big Woods. In other words, a shit load. We'll get to all that in a minute. First some observations about what you can expect if you attend Maryland Sheep and Wool with Peeper-Lou:

-within minutes of arriving, you will likely be consuming a funnel cake and a lime fizz. And then repeating this gesture right before leaving, thereby insuring that you might likely feel like vomiting and sleeping at the same time.

-she is strongly attracted to any and all demonstrations, and used the power of her charms/ability to invade the personal space of others to get the demonstrators to let her try whatever they're doing. In this case I am talking about basket weaving and spinning. She now is begging for a drop spindle. Help. Uncle WonderMike, can you be of some assistance here?

-she will be inexorably drawn to any and all creative anachronism people (this is so the opposite of me) and bluntly ask them "Who are you supposed to be?", which after speaking with several of these comely wenches becomes "What are you supposed to be?".

-if the possibility of free buttons at a Ravlery meet-up has been suggested, and these said free buttons run out, well, that is going to set her off. Because this girl is all about buttons. "My mom is on Ravelry, are you sure you don't have any more? No, not the small ones, the bigger ones that you write on with the sharpie...".

Behold the spoils:

Despite the peculiar behaviors above, we had a great time. There were the vendors that I was looking forward to seeing, like Shelridge Farm , Tess and Brooks Farm, who all had their usual fabulous yarn and patterns. Miraculously the Fold booth was not crowded and the shoppers were civil. There were other unexpected surprises: The Llamajama alpaca yarn was new to me, as was the Cloverhill shop from Baltimore which had an incredible selection of indie-type sock yarn.

Perhaps I need to be concerned about the lessons I am teaching my daughter with my yarn behaviors. When we pulled up to the house after our long sojourn and I began to get out of the car, Peeper-Lou frantically said "But mom, wait...aren't you even going to try to hide what you bought?". Yes, I might as well have her hand me a bong and a lighter at this point...

37 comments:

Funny, as I snuck in with my bags today, I thought what a bad example I am to my children when I try to hide the spoils.

Sorry we were there on opposite days. Looks like you got some great loot. Tell Peeper Lou that Rhinebeck is pretty fun too! She sounds like the best of fiber festival companions. Anyone who encourages the consumption of funnel cakes is good people in my book!

Oh my, that yarn is making me swoon just a bit. How funny is Peeper-Lou abetting you with hiding your purchase?! I made that mistake once and forgot, asking Jim to get something else out of my trunk. He came in and said, "Um, did you want this bag of yarn too?" Busted! Hey, it's not like we're cooking up meth. It's just yarn! Glad you two had fun!

oh yes. i am a daughter of a hiding mother. i know all too well. she taught me to hide. why "spoil" all the fun? :) it looks like you have some fabulous things to hide!!! glad you two had such a great time. wish i was there!

It's good to know that others bought with the same abandon as I did. Your new acquisitions are fabulous! Not only did I buy a ton of yarn, but the "one blob of roving" on my list of things to buy turned into mega amounts of roving. I was flying high on wool fumes.

At least she's learning good stash enhancement practices at an early age!

I bought my eight year old a drop spindle to stave off his demands to use my wheel. He turns out some very nice singles--but now he's insisting he REALLY needs to use my wheel because it will be much faster. What have I created?

Peeper-Lou has learned well. How do you manage to buy yarns in so many different colors? I only seem to buy purples and the reds and blues that make purple. Mmmmmm... funnel cakes. I haven't had that barfy/sleepy feeling in a long time.